...i recently bumped into a former colleague for the first time in a couple of years and asked about her new job: she text-messaged me afterward a painfully-obvious AI-enhanced description of her...
...i recently bumped into a former colleague for the first time in a couple of years and asked about her new job: she text-messaged me afterward a painfully-obvious AI-enhanced description of her role and how she missed working together, which i cringed upon reading but kind-of-shrugged-off as english is her second language, so she's always struggled to communicate well in written form...
...still, if i hadn't known her as well as i do, in a strictly professional context i'd've found her AI correspondence immediately offputting, which is ironic since she uses it to appear more professional...
...you know the linked-in heebie-jeebies?..yeah, total linked-in heebie-jeebies...
"enhanced" The people who use AI to write one-to-one messages are either totally (and willfully) ignorant that their messages are obviously AI-generated, or they don't consider you worthy of the...
AI-enhanced description
"enhanced"
The people who use AI to write one-to-one messages are either totally (and willfully) ignorant that their messages are obviously AI-generated, or they don't consider you worthy of the few seconds or minutes it would take to write a few personal lines. Either way it's not only a heebie-jeebies feel, but a total lack of respect.
This is the biggest problem I had early last year when all the AI announcements were going around. One of the examples in the various product announcement videos was a Thank You note. The entire...
This is the biggest problem I had early last year when all the AI announcements were going around. One of the examples in the various product announcement videos was a Thank You note.
The entire point of a Thank You note is that you don't have to tell them thank you, you choose to. You take time out of your busy day, despite there being no requirement to do so, to share with this person your personal feelings on how much it meant to you that they helped you with something.
Even if the wording came out as a non-AI message that read as a heartfelt note, it still misses the point of the note itself.
It just shows me these AI companies don't even really understand what they're trying to solve with it. Or maybe the companies are just run by executives that only see telling someone "thank you" as a chore that they have an assistant for, and they can now replace that assistant with a chat bot.
I really liked how the author of this article described how it made them feel; I think I would feel quite similarly. I think this is one of my biggest gripes with the current use of AI - it’s...
It felt like a family fridge decorated with printed stock art of children’s drawings.
I really liked how the author of this article described how it made them feel; I think I would feel quite similarly.
Could it be so advanced that I wouldn’t even be able to tell that my friend hadn’t written to me at all? Possibly. And that idea saddens me the most.
I think this is one of my biggest gripes with the current use of AI - it’s removing human connections and replacing them with…nothing. By using AI for creative pursuits like witting or art, it’s removing the human feelings of those things.
And I think it would be different if this was (actual) AGI, not the AGI that tech-bros seem to think we’ve already achieved. I still don’t think LLMs, no matter how advanced, will ever truly be more than just really good predictive text/autocorrect. And the issue is we have people treating these LLM tools as something they aren’t, or using them to replace genuine human connection.
Co-worker, last year: "I think OpenAI has already created AGI." Like, bro. Bruh. I know you use it every day. How can you possibly believe that it's self-aware? I mean I use it every day too, but...
AGI that tech-bros seem to think we’ve already achieved
Co-worker, last year: "I think OpenAI has already created AGI."
Like, bro. Bruh. I know you use it every day. How can you possibly believe that it's self-aware?
I mean I use it every day too, but I have no illusions about what it is, and what it's not.
AGI doesn't mean self aware though, even though AGI is poorly defined. Doesn't it 'just' mean an AI that can perform arbitrary unrelated tasks without specialised pretraining? Depending on where...
AGI doesn't mean self aware though, even though AGI is poorly defined. Doesn't it 'just' mean an AI that can perform arbitrary unrelated tasks without specialised pretraining? Depending on where exactly you draw the line LLMs are already there, though I suspect they're a dead end.
The "general" in AGI is significantly broader than what current LLMs can do by almost any metric. LLMs are language models and are wholly incapable of doing tasks that aren't language. It sucks at...
The "general" in AGI is significantly broader than what current LLMs can do by almost any metric. LLMs are language models and are wholly incapable of doing tasks that aren't language. It sucks at things like counting and basic math as a result.
Yes but if an AI writes an email in a forest and nobody is there to see it written, does the AI live? Or to put it more seriously, if it's indistinguishable what does it matter at all? It's just...
Yes but if an AI writes an email in a forest and nobody is there to see it written, does the AI live?
Or to put it more seriously, if it's indistinguishable what does it matter at all? It's just the preemptive feeling of losing human connection which you couldn't tell if it was advanced enough.
Now I do agree, if it's a personal contact you speak to and you find out this person was ultimately a bot, you'd be rightfully disappointed and/or angry.
But for a business contact I could not care any less than I already do who's on the other line. If that AI makes their ideas more understandable they could ever hope to convey with their feeblemindedness, it's at least a net benefit for me.
I thought this article was worth sharing, since it captures a sentiment I also recently experienced: it feels unexpectedly bad to have someone communicate with you using generated text. The author...
The author goes a bit further, with some introspection as to why they felt that way.
~life might actually be a better group for this thread. The article is non-technical, and is more about relationships and introspection than it is about LLMs.
I send a ton of AI emails. I'm a teacher and absolutely hate trying to wrote emails to parents about their kids. I've always found it really stressful trying to explain bad situations...
I send a ton of AI emails. I'm a teacher and absolutely hate trying to wrote emails to parents about their kids. I've always found it really stressful trying to explain bad situations professionally, without sounding uncaring. I'd write and rewrite an email a few times before sending it.
So now it's "write an email from a teacher to the parent of a high-school student explaining their child hasn't been doing assignments, but passing in blank or partially completed assignments to make it look like they're done in the system. They consistently claim this is a mistake or a computer error, but this happens on almost every assignment. They will fail if this behavior doesnt change."
It spits out a decent email or occasionally I ask for a rewrite, and I'm done. Same with report card comments. Super stressful to write them out for every student. I think pretty much every teacher is using ai at this point.
I am not a teacher and I'm sure there are other factors at play with parent-teacher-communication so forgive my naivety. Why not just send that? As you've written it here. Yes it's blunt. I'd...
I am not a teacher and I'm sure there are other factors at play with parent-teacher-communication so forgive my naivety.
Why not just send that? As you've written it here.
Yes it's blunt. I'd rather read a brief but blunt message written by a human, rather than the same general content with a bunch of dressing added and all character removed by some robot.
I guess the thing for me is: if someone sends me an AI email, that means they put a prompt into the machine and it gave back this slop. Why don't they just send the prompt to me directly? It's gonna have all the same content - or, if the AI did add some content, I don't want to see it because it's not real.
I think you may underestimate the potential negative response some parents would have to an honest but blunt message from their child's teacher. There's a reason we as humans add a bunch of...
Yes it's blunt. I'd rather read a brief but blunt message written by a human, rather than the same general content with a bunch of dressing added and all character removed by some robot.
I think you may underestimate the potential negative response some parents would have to an honest but blunt message from their child's teacher. There's a reason we as humans add a bunch of dressing to communication, and parent-teacher communication is one where the teacher often has to do a lot of work to save the parents' face.
I have to say, my kneejerk reaction is: who emails their friends? Is this a millenial/boomer thing? I don't even think anyone would email me a question at work, unless they were external. But when...
I have to say, my kneejerk reaction is: who emails their friends? Is this a millenial/boomer thing? I don't even think anyone would email me a question at work, unless they were external.
But when you really think about it, it feels bad because it means they don't think of you as a friend. Why would you send a chatGPT message and not just whatever prompted it? Because you are not close enough. You think without extra padding and the equivalent of a disclaimer that the other person might be offended. If you're close with someone, you can send them whatever garbage you want and you don't really care, because you know they know you well enough to not get the wrong message.
Hm, I'm a millennial, and I used to have really deep, long email conversations with particular friends. I guess it was like how letter writing used to be. We'd both take some non-trivial amount of...
Hm, I'm a millennial, and I used to have really deep, long email conversations with particular friends. I guess it was like how letter writing used to be. We'd both take some non-trivial amount of time out of our week to sit down and write paragraphs to each other, sometimes about personal things, sometimes about philosophy, etc. And of course there would be days in between responses, so the conversation had a slow, deliberate feel to it. And enough stuff would happen in between emails that there was usually something new to weave in to the conversation.
I haven't done that in years, and now that you mention it being surprising, it makes me as a little sad that something like that is considered so strange these days. I really loved writing and reading those emails, but my brain today doesn't feel patient enough to do something like that again, even if I found an email partner.
Yeah, I really think it’s too bad people don’t email each other in the way you describe anymore, but I think the person you’re replying to is an outlier if they really don’t even use email at...
Yeah, I really think it’s too bad people don’t email each other in the way you describe anymore, but I think the person you’re replying to is an outlier if they really don’t even use email at work. At my job email is a huge component of our workflow, and it’s not as though we’re a bunch of senior citizens. I’d guess the average age is around 35.
It's not as if I never use email, but internally it's basically a bucket for automated messages. If someone wants to talk to me, it'll be over slack or zoom. Or if it's a very formal request,...
It's not as if I never use email, but internally it's basically a bucket for automated messages. If someone wants to talk to me, it'll be over slack or zoom. Or if it's a very formal request, it'll be on jira. There's not really any reason to use email. If a papertrail is needed, that's what a google doc is for. There are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human.
The exception is external partners. Email is the only way to communicate there.
My inbox is just notifications from things; github, jira, company-wide announcements (which, for all intents and purposes, are read only), and so forth.
It's a pretty bold statement to say "there are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human." I think the reality is much more split. The professional space you work in...
It's a pretty bold statement to say "there are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human." I think the reality is much more split. The professional space you work in sounds very focused on instant messaging. But many other industries still largely operate off person to person emails for communication (which maybe is what you're touching on talking about external partners).
Your anectodal experience is no less true than for those of use that exchange a tremendous number of emails with others for both professional and personal correspondence. In both circles for me, email is usually the easiest way to transfer small files, pictures, or quick text notes for follow-up later. I email close family members, friends, and professional contacts daily and do very little communication via instant message platforms. The exception may be text messages in which most of my correspondence is by text or email, anything long is by email though.
I can see how a growing number of people find them selves in a similar communication environment to yours, but I don't think it's factual to say person to person emails correspondence is a millennial or boomer thing. It's just not your immediate circle that operates this way, but I don't think your experience is representative of the average.
I think you misread. This is part of my anecdotal experience at work. I'm sure there are industries where emailing people is more common at work, but that seems like an age thing as well. Outside...
It's a pretty bold statement to say "there are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human."
I think you misread. This is part of my anecdotal experience at work.
I'm sure there are industries where emailing people is more common at work, but that seems like an age thing as well.
Outside of work, emails have all but vanished no matter the industry the person works in. I don't know anyone my age or younger that would email a friend. That'd just be very weird. Transferring files, maybe, but I wouldn't count that as emailing a message.
If you do email people frequently, well, are you millennial or older?
I work in fashion, an industry that needs to be with the times. Email is still the default method of communication, especially larger scale comms. I think your own experiences color your...
I work in fashion, an industry that needs to be with the times. Email is still the default method of communication, especially larger scale comms.
I think your own experiences color your expectations a little too much.
Yeah, gotta agree here. Email is still the default for any sort of formal communication in most industries. Teams/Slack and similar are fine for ongoing collaborative conversations or quick...
Yeah, gotta agree here. Email is still the default for any sort of formal communication in most industries. Teams/Slack and similar are fine for ongoing collaborative conversations or quick questions, but anything that is an announcement or is needed to create a formal record of a decision is going to be sent by email.
That kinda goes with my point, though. That isn't really human-to-human talking. That's more broadcasts. Announcements. Papertrail. If you're talking to another human, it's probably not on email.
but anything that is an announcement or is needed to create a formal record of a decision is going to be sent by email
That kinda goes with my point, though. That isn't really human-to-human talking. That's more broadcasts. Announcements. Papertrail. If you're talking to another human, it's probably not on email.
I'm just another anecdata point, but: I work in tech, and my department's age distribution is a left-skewed bell from 20s to 50s. My day-to-day experience is exactly like stu2b50 describes. The...
I'm just another anecdata point, but: I work in tech, and my department's age distribution is a left-skewed bell from 20s to 50s. My day-to-day experience is exactly like stu2b50 describes. The vast majority entirety of inter-human communication is by Slack and Zoom, and emails are automated messages and reply-not-expected stuff. Not once in the last several years has a colleague said "hey, did you get that email I sent? I haven't received a reply".
Granted, outside of work, I do write and receive human-to-human emails.
Yeah, I work in tech and emails from real humans are only for relatively formal announcements (like an upcoming in-person meet-up) that require a lot of people to be copied on them or...
Yeah, I work in tech and emails from real humans are only for relatively formal announcements (like an upcoming in-person meet-up) that require a lot of people to be copied on them or communication with more formal business side (HR/payroll/etc). Actual communication for the vast majority of our work is done through slack, zoom, and other more specific apps. Maybe the sales team uses email more, but in engineering it's definitely 90% notifications and spam. Which to be fair is probably still a better ratio than my personal email, which is easily 95% notifications and spam.
I'm honestly not sure, I fall on the margin as either a baby millennial or as an elder zoomer as a late 90s child. I feel a lot of experience over lap with what I see both generations write about...
I'm honestly not sure, I fall on the margin as either a baby millennial or as an elder zoomer as a late 90s child. I feel a lot of experience over lap with what I see both generations write about but never a good match with a majority one way or the other. So I don't think my experience is a good representation for either millennials or zoomers when it comes to communication modes. I'm also still in an academic work environment as a graduate student so it's pretty normal to just email my peers because I know they're going to see an email (again in a case where a text wouldn't be easier).
I'm Gen X. I handwrite lengthy letters to my close friends and family a few times a year. It feels good to take the time to think out what I'm going to say, and when I'm done, I've produced an...
I'm Gen X. I handwrite lengthy letters to my close friends and family a few times a year. It feels good to take the time to think out what I'm going to say, and when I'm done, I've produced an artifact that everyone involves enjoys. I cherish the letters home my parents used to write; the ones covering the prosaic day-to-day are some of my favorite. What I never expected before now was how funny it would be that cursive, of all things, would be the Forbidden Knowledge that renders my letters unintelligible to prying eyes under the age of 40. :D
But seriously, just write. Handwritten, typed, email, whatever. Give yourself permission to take the time to do it properly. I can almost certainly guarantee you'll find it a rewarding experience.
Once again, GenX is completely ignored. Left standing in the corner as the world rushes on about us. Hint to all you young whippersnappers; GenXers are not Boomers. We're unique special...
millenial/boomer
Once again, GenX is completely ignored. Left standing in the corner as the world rushes on about us. Hint to all you young whippersnappers; GenXers are not Boomers. We're unique special wallflowers, don't'cha know?
I'm pretty sure AI can generate a Shakespearean sonnet on why not even bothering to write an email yourself is degrading, offensive and unacceptable, and why any other emails like that will be...
I'm pretty sure AI can generate a Shakespearean sonnet on why not even bothering to write an email yourself is degrading, offensive and unacceptable, and why any other emails like that will be deleted without response.
And I'm not even joking or being facetious - I hope no friends of mine ever stoop down to have AI write their emails to me, but if they do, that's what they'll get in response...
I received an AI email from a colleague, where the colleague obviously copy-pasted the response from ChatGPT. This isn't the first time the person has done this, but it's the most offensive to me....
I received an AI email from a colleague, where the colleague obviously copy-pasted the response from ChatGPT. This isn't the first time the person has done this, but it's the most offensive to me.
It was obvious, because they accidentally included "Certainly! Here's an email addressed to X".
"X" was misspelled.
I was - am - very offended. I almost reply-all with a screenshot of a ChatGPT prompt and response: "I have a colleague who keeps sending me AI generated emails. It is rude. Please write a polite email requesting that they stop." The email it produced was actually decent, and in its classic three-paragraph middle school essay format, clearly explained why it is so rude. The irony was incredible.
I never did send that response, for a couple reasons - given how excited the person is about AI, the irony certainly would have been lost. I think it would have burnt some bridges I'd rather not burn (yet). Most importantly: I am not X, X is a close coworker of mine and I was copied in a large group. It didn't seem appropriate to send this charged response when I wasn't even the one directly addressed.
It's lingered on my mind and I wonder if I should have sent the email anyway. I think probably not, but.....
I also wonder if they would have even been insulted. They clearly don't think it's rude to send to others, so they should be okay with receiving it, right? I'm somehow doubtful, but, again, I think the irony would be lost on this person in particular.
The same person has added this "assistant" https://www.read.ai/ to each and every meeting they're a part of. I don't really like the idea of this thing recording me, so I'm keeping my video off when it's in the call. They don't like it but I don't care. It's wonderful, because they add us to these meetings that really should be emails, except if the email comes from them I know it's actually a robot. And now, we get an email about the meeting that should have been an email - also from a robot. And the content really doesn't seem to have anything to do with the meeting.
How much is [the] thing costing their organization? And are they even aware of the privacy concerns?
It's a shame because I don't think the person realizes how toxic the whole thing is and how people - at least everyone I know in my more technical department - are starting to avoid and cut ties because of it. Those times I'm aware of that people complain, it's just all the same AI hype rhetoric parroted back and never any change in behavior.
I recently joined a meeting hosted by an external organisation that used an AI/bot like that one in their meetings too, and it particularly struck me because I’m currently working for a government...
How much is thing thing costing their organization? And are they even aware of the privacy concerns?
I recently joined a meeting hosted by an external organisation that used an AI/bot like that one in their meetings too, and it particularly struck me because I’m currently working for a government entity and the sheer volume and frequency of reminders about privacy and security was in such juxtaposition from seeing this bot in the meeting. At first I assumed the company must have got permission from our department to use the bot in meetings, but after the meeting I went to the website and checked the privacy policy, and I’m absolutely confident that it would never have been given approval, because the privacy policy makes absolutely no statements to disarm the assumption that they’re recording everything and will sell their own grandma to advertisers. A particularly negative reading of their privacy policy even suggests they’re not even compliant with privacy laws in Australia?
Another thing I've noticed - only a couple times, thankfully - are messages with that ChatGPT flair that include proprietary details, codenames, status, etc. What was the prompt for that? Please...
Another thing I've noticed - only a couple times, thankfully - are messages with that ChatGPT flair that include proprietary details, codenames, status, etc. What was the prompt for that?
Please write a message explaining that <proprietary feature> is behind schedule.
You have to treat it like a data breach. I'm glad my organization has policy and training in place in response, and I haven't seen that in a long time. But I fully believe this problematic person I mentioned would do it without a second thought.
Imagine if you had access to all the messages that people said to the robot. Imagine if you got people to register with online accounts so you could cross reference and figure out who they are and who they work for. Imagine if you had a machine that could read the messages and summarize the status of those organizations.
Sure is a good thing that we have a respectable and trustworthy company at the helm to make sure nothing like that can be abused.
Sure, here is a Shakespearean sonnet addressing the matter of not writing one's own email: In days of yore, when words were borne by quill, And messages bespoke with care and thought, A missive’s...
AI can generate a Shakespearean sonnet
Sure, here is a Shakespearean sonnet addressing the matter of not writing one's own email:
In days of yore, when words were borne by quill,
And messages bespoke with care and thought,
A missive’s craft did thus the heart fulfill,
And honor by its sender’s hand was wrought.
Yet now, in modern times, we see the fall,
Of standards once held high and deeply dear.
An automated script or thoughtless thrall,
Doth send a note with none the wiser near.
To shun the labor, not with ink or pen,
But with a ghostly, lifeless, soulless touch,
Is to offend, degrade the craft, and then
Insult the one who reads it very much.
Henceforth, let all who fail to write their plea,
Know that such missives meet the void’s decree.
(Despite the fact that CGPT appears to have no concept of what iambic pentameter is (I take the first part of this back, the iambic pentameter is there, I'm just not used to reading it any more, I guess), this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. No award winner, to be sure, but at least better than I'd have managed in jr. high, as low a bar as that is.)
I've long had this vision of an AI generated 'person' chatting on facetime, whatsapp or whatever while they're busy doing something else —probably mundane like dishes or even an ablution— to...
Could it be so advanced that I wouldn’t even be able to tell that my friend hadn’t written to me at all?
I've long had this vision of an AI generated 'person' chatting on facetime, whatsapp or whatever while they're busy doing something else —probably mundane like dishes or even an ablution— to another 'person' whose doing the same thing.
As AI helps us more, becomes more capable and gets to know us more —so it can help us more— this weird thought becomes more possible somehow. And is of course saddening and scary. My own hope is that face to face more social physical interactions rise and we realise the value of them.
I'll add a comment about helping me with my grammar. I've always struggled with sentence structure, but it comes and goes. Usually when I am very drained and I've been communicating a ton over the...
I'll add a comment about helping me with my grammar. I've always struggled with sentence structure, but it comes and goes. Usually when I am very drained and I've been communicating a ton over the course of the day, this is when it's hardest for me to get my point across.
Normally when I'm in one of these scenarios I will write my entire email and then pull sections out that I'd like to rewrite, and I'll have AI suggest a new perspective of writing it. I don't always take the suggestions, and I'll also proof read and pull out words I would never use.
So basically I am using it as an editor.
This might as well read "How it feels to get an email (instead of a hand written letter) from a friend". In cases like ESL, the LLM could have been used to translate, making it far easier for...
This might as well read "How it feels to get an email (instead of a hand written letter) from a friend". In cases like ESL, the LLM could have been used to translate, making it far easier for their friend to communicate. But let's ignore the message being broadcast in favor of being enraged by the method of broadcast. "LLMs can't be excited" neither can text. It's a tool to communicate. Get off the high horse.
Hey [OP], I can totally understand your mixed feelings about receiving an AI-generated email from a friend. It's a situation that can bring up a lot of different emotions, and it's a new territory...
Hey [OP],
I can totally understand your mixed feelings about receiving an AI-generated email from a friend. It's a situation that can bring up a lot of different emotions, and it's a new territory for many of us. Here are a few thoughts and perspectives that might resonate:
Surprise and Curiosity: Initially, there's often a sense of surprise. Realizing that an email, which you might have assumed was written personally, was crafted by an AI can be quite a shock. It’s natural to be curious about how the AI works and why your friend chose to use it.
Personal Connection: One of the main aspects of email communication is the personal touch. Knowing that an email was generated by an AI might feel like it lacks the personal connection we usually expect from our friends. It might even feel a bit impersonal or distant.
Efficiency and Convenience: On the flip side, AI can help people manage their time better. Your friend might have used AI to ensure they could reach out despite a busy schedule, which can be seen as a positive thing. It means they still value keeping in touch, even if they needed a little help from technology.
Intent Matters: The context and intention behind using AI are important. If your friend used AI to help draft a complex message or to ensure they communicated clearly and effectively, it might not feel as impersonal. But if it feels like they’re relying on AI too much, it could lead to questions about the authenticity of your interactions.
The Future of Communication: This scenario is becoming more common as AI technology advances. It's part of a broader change in how we communicate. Embracing this technology can open up new possibilities, but it also requires us to think about how we maintain genuine connections.
Expressing Your Feelings: It might be worth discussing this with your friend. Sharing how the AI-generated email made you feel can lead to a better understanding on both sides. They might not realize the impact it had, and your feedback could help them decide how to use AI in the future.
In the end, the feeling of receiving an AI-written email from a friend can be a mix of intrigue, discomfort, and adaptation. It’s a reminder of how rapidly our communication landscape is changing and how we can navigate these changes together.
Curious to hear how others feel about this!
Best,
[Your Username]
Haha, couldn't help myself. :)
More seriously though, I do sometimes ask an AI to write something and then use it for inspiration for my own writing -- sometimes it does come up with some phrases or points that I find valuable to incorporate, but I never accep it wholesale, or even as the majority of the content.
...i recently bumped into a former colleague for the first time in a couple of years and asked about her new job: she text-messaged me afterward a painfully-obvious AI-enhanced description of her role and how she missed working together, which i cringed upon reading but kind-of-shrugged-off as english is her second language, so she's always struggled to communicate well in written form...
...still, if i hadn't known her as well as i do, in a strictly professional context i'd've found her AI correspondence immediately offputting, which is ironic since she uses it to appear more professional...
...you know the linked-in heebie-jeebies?..yeah, total linked-in heebie-jeebies...
"enhanced"
The people who use AI to write one-to-one messages are either totally (and willfully) ignorant that their messages are obviously AI-generated, or they don't consider you worthy of the few seconds or minutes it would take to write a few personal lines. Either way it's not only a heebie-jeebies feel, but a total lack of respect.
This is the biggest problem I had early last year when all the AI announcements were going around. One of the examples in the various product announcement videos was a Thank You note.
The entire point of a Thank You note is that you don't have to tell them thank you, you choose to. You take time out of your busy day, despite there being no requirement to do so, to share with this person your personal feelings on how much it meant to you that they helped you with something.
Even if the wording came out as a non-AI message that read as a heartfelt note, it still misses the point of the note itself.
It just shows me these AI companies don't even really understand what they're trying to solve with it. Or maybe the companies are just run by executives that only see telling someone "thank you" as a chore that they have an assistant for, and they can now replace that assistant with a chat bot.
Got to say I love this description. I think I'll have to use heebie-jeebies more often as it is so descriptive.
I really liked how the author of this article described how it made them feel; I think I would feel quite similarly.
I think this is one of my biggest gripes with the current use of AI - it’s removing human connections and replacing them with…nothing. By using AI for creative pursuits like witting or art, it’s removing the human feelings of those things.
And I think it would be different if this was (actual) AGI, not the AGI that tech-bros seem to think we’ve already achieved. I still don’t think LLMs, no matter how advanced, will ever truly be more than just really good predictive text/autocorrect. And the issue is we have people treating these LLM tools as something they aren’t, or using them to replace genuine human connection.
Co-worker, last year: "I think OpenAI has already created AGI."
Like, bro. Bruh. I know you use it every day. How can you possibly believe that it's self-aware?
I mean I use it every day too, but I have no illusions about what it is, and what it's not.
AGI doesn't mean self aware though, even though AGI is poorly defined. Doesn't it 'just' mean an AI that can perform arbitrary unrelated tasks without specialised pretraining? Depending on where exactly you draw the line LLMs are already there, though I suspect they're a dead end.
The "general" in AGI is significantly broader than what current LLMs can do by almost any metric. LLMs are language models and are wholly incapable of doing tasks that aren't language. It sucks at things like counting and basic math as a result.
Yes but if an AI writes an email in a forest and nobody is there to see it written, does the AI live?
Or to put it more seriously, if it's indistinguishable what does it matter at all? It's just the preemptive feeling of losing human connection which you couldn't tell if it was advanced enough.
Now I do agree, if it's a personal contact you speak to and you find out this person was ultimately a bot, you'd be rightfully disappointed and/or angry.
But for a business contact I could not care any less than I already do who's on the other line. If that AI makes their ideas more understandable they could ever hope to convey with their feeblemindedness, it's at least a net benefit for me.
I thought this article was worth sharing, since it captures a sentiment I also recently experienced: it feels unexpectedly bad to have someone communicate with you using generated text.
The author goes a bit further, with some introspection as to why they felt that way.
~life might actually be a better group for this thread. The article is non-technical, and is more about relationships and introspection than it is about LLMs.
I send a ton of AI emails. I'm a teacher and absolutely hate trying to wrote emails to parents about their kids. I've always found it really stressful trying to explain bad situations professionally, without sounding uncaring. I'd write and rewrite an email a few times before sending it.
So now it's "write an email from a teacher to the parent of a high-school student explaining their child hasn't been doing assignments, but passing in blank or partially completed assignments to make it look like they're done in the system. They consistently claim this is a mistake or a computer error, but this happens on almost every assignment. They will fail if this behavior doesnt change."
It spits out a decent email or occasionally I ask for a rewrite, and I'm done. Same with report card comments. Super stressful to write them out for every student. I think pretty much every teacher is using ai at this point.
I am not a teacher and I'm sure there are other factors at play with parent-teacher-communication so forgive my naivety.
Why not just send that? As you've written it here.
Yes it's blunt. I'd rather read a brief but blunt message written by a human, rather than the same general content with a bunch of dressing added and all character removed by some robot.
I guess the thing for me is: if someone sends me an AI email, that means they put a prompt into the machine and it gave back this slop. Why don't they just send the prompt to me directly? It's gonna have all the same content - or, if the AI did add some content, I don't want to see it because it's not real.
I think you may underestimate the potential negative response some parents would have to an honest but blunt message from their child's teacher. There's a reason we as humans add a bunch of dressing to communication, and parent-teacher communication is one where the teacher often has to do a lot of work to save the parents' face.
Hm. I think you're right. And now you've got me thinking in that space, I can only imagine.
The appeal of AI here makes a lot more sense.
I have to say, my kneejerk reaction is: who emails their friends? Is this a millenial/boomer thing? I don't even think anyone would email me a question at work, unless they were external.
But when you really think about it, it feels bad because it means they don't think of you as a friend. Why would you send a chatGPT message and not just whatever prompted it? Because you are not close enough. You think without extra padding and the equivalent of a disclaimer that the other person might be offended. If you're close with someone, you can send them whatever garbage you want and you don't really care, because you know they know you well enough to not get the wrong message.
Hm, I'm a millennial, and I used to have really deep, long email conversations with particular friends. I guess it was like how letter writing used to be. We'd both take some non-trivial amount of time out of our week to sit down and write paragraphs to each other, sometimes about personal things, sometimes about philosophy, etc. And of course there would be days in between responses, so the conversation had a slow, deliberate feel to it. And enough stuff would happen in between emails that there was usually something new to weave in to the conversation.
I haven't done that in years, and now that you mention it being surprising, it makes me as a little sad that something like that is considered so strange these days. I really loved writing and reading those emails, but my brain today doesn't feel patient enough to do something like that again, even if I found an email partner.
Yeah, I really think it’s too bad people don’t email each other in the way you describe anymore, but I think the person you’re replying to is an outlier if they really don’t even use email at work. At my job email is a huge component of our workflow, and it’s not as though we’re a bunch of senior citizens. I’d guess the average age is around 35.
It's not as if I never use email, but internally it's basically a bucket for automated messages. If someone wants to talk to me, it'll be over slack or zoom. Or if it's a very formal request, it'll be on jira. There's not really any reason to use email. If a papertrail is needed, that's what a google doc is for. There are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human.
The exception is external partners. Email is the only way to communicate there.
My inbox is just notifications from things; github, jira, company-wide announcements (which, for all intents and purposes, are read only), and so forth.
It's a pretty bold statement to say "there are few to no circumstances where a human will send an email to a human." I think the reality is much more split. The professional space you work in sounds very focused on instant messaging. But many other industries still largely operate off person to person emails for communication (which maybe is what you're touching on talking about external partners).
Your anectodal experience is no less true than for those of use that exchange a tremendous number of emails with others for both professional and personal correspondence. In both circles for me, email is usually the easiest way to transfer small files, pictures, or quick text notes for follow-up later. I email close family members, friends, and professional contacts daily and do very little communication via instant message platforms. The exception may be text messages in which most of my correspondence is by text or email, anything long is by email though.
I can see how a growing number of people find them selves in a similar communication environment to yours, but I don't think it's factual to say person to person emails correspondence is a millennial or boomer thing. It's just not your immediate circle that operates this way, but I don't think your experience is representative of the average.
I think you misread. This is part of my anecdotal experience at work.
I'm sure there are industries where emailing people is more common at work, but that seems like an age thing as well.
Outside of work, emails have all but vanished no matter the industry the person works in. I don't know anyone my age or younger that would email a friend. That'd just be very weird. Transferring files, maybe, but I wouldn't count that as emailing a message.
If you do email people frequently, well, are you millennial or older?
I work in fashion, an industry that needs to be with the times. Email is still the default method of communication, especially larger scale comms.
I think your own experiences color your expectations a little too much.
Yeah, gotta agree here. Email is still the default for any sort of formal communication in most industries. Teams/Slack and similar are fine for ongoing collaborative conversations or quick questions, but anything that is an announcement or is needed to create a formal record of a decision is going to be sent by email.
That kinda goes with my point, though. That isn't really human-to-human talking. That's more broadcasts. Announcements. Papertrail. If you're talking to another human, it's probably not on email.
I'm just another anecdata point, but: I work in tech, and my department's age distribution is a left-skewed bell from 20s to 50s. My day-to-day experience is exactly like stu2b50 describes. The
vast majorityentirety of inter-human communication is by Slack and Zoom, and emails are automated messages and reply-not-expected stuff. Not once in the last several years has a colleague said "hey, did you get that email I sent? I haven't received a reply".Granted, outside of work, I do write and receive human-to-human emails.
Yeah, I work in tech and emails from real humans are only for relatively formal announcements (like an upcoming in-person meet-up) that require a lot of people to be copied on them or communication with more formal business side (HR/payroll/etc). Actual communication for the vast majority of our work is done through slack, zoom, and other more specific apps. Maybe the sales team uses email more, but in engineering it's definitely 90% notifications and spam. Which to be fair is probably still a better ratio than my personal email, which is easily 95% notifications and spam.
I'm honestly not sure, I fall on the margin as either a baby millennial or as an elder zoomer as a late 90s child. I feel a lot of experience over lap with what I see both generations write about but never a good match with a majority one way or the other. So I don't think my experience is a good representation for either millennials or zoomers when it comes to communication modes. I'm also still in an academic work environment as a graduate student so it's pretty normal to just email my peers because I know they're going to see an email (again in a case where a text wouldn't be easier).
I'm Gen X. I handwrite lengthy letters to my close friends and family a few times a year. It feels good to take the time to think out what I'm going to say, and when I'm done, I've produced an artifact that everyone involves enjoys. I cherish the letters home my parents used to write; the ones covering the prosaic day-to-day are some of my favorite. What I never expected before now was how funny it would be that cursive, of all things, would be the Forbidden Knowledge that renders my letters unintelligible to prying eyes under the age of 40. :D
But seriously, just write. Handwritten, typed, email, whatever. Give yourself permission to take the time to do it properly. I can almost certainly guarantee you'll find it a rewarding experience.
Once again, GenX is completely ignored. Left standing in the corner as the world rushes on about us. Hint to all you young whippersnappers; GenXers are not Boomers. We're unique special wallflowers, don't'cha know?
I'm pretty sure AI can generate a Shakespearean sonnet on why not even bothering to write an email yourself is degrading, offensive and unacceptable, and why any other emails like that will be deleted without response.
And I'm not even joking or being facetious - I hope no friends of mine ever stoop down to have AI write their emails to me, but if they do, that's what they'll get in response...
I received an AI email from a colleague, where the colleague obviously copy-pasted the response from ChatGPT. This isn't the first time the person has done this, but it's the most offensive to me.
It was obvious, because they accidentally included "Certainly! Here's an email addressed to X".
"X" was misspelled.
I was - am - very offended. I almost reply-all with a screenshot of a ChatGPT prompt and response: "I have a colleague who keeps sending me AI generated emails. It is rude. Please write a polite email requesting that they stop." The email it produced was actually decent, and in its classic three-paragraph middle school essay format, clearly explained why it is so rude. The irony was incredible.
I never did send that response, for a couple reasons - given how excited the person is about AI, the irony certainly would have been lost. I think it would have burnt some bridges I'd rather not burn (yet). Most importantly: I am not X, X is a close coworker of mine and I was copied in a large group. It didn't seem appropriate to send this charged response when I wasn't even the one directly addressed.
It's lingered on my mind and I wonder if I should have sent the email anyway. I think probably not, but.....
I also wonder if they would have even been insulted. They clearly don't think it's rude to send to others, so they should be okay with receiving it, right? I'm somehow doubtful, but, again, I think the irony would be lost on this person in particular.
The same person has added this "assistant" https://www.read.ai/ to each and every meeting they're a part of. I don't really like the idea of this thing recording me, so I'm keeping my video off when it's in the call. They don't like it but I don't care. It's wonderful, because they add us to these meetings that really should be emails, except if the email comes from them I know it's actually a robot. And now, we get an email about the meeting that should have been an email - also from a robot. And the content really doesn't seem to have anything to do with the meeting.
How much is [the] thing costing their organization? And are they even aware of the privacy concerns?
It's a shame because I don't think the person realizes how toxic the whole thing is and how people - at least everyone I know in my more technical department - are starting to avoid and cut ties because of it. Those times I'm aware of that people complain, it's just all the same AI hype rhetoric parroted back and never any change in behavior.
Edit: https://i.imgur.com/SrimKQu.png
I recently joined a meeting hosted by an external organisation that used an AI/bot like that one in their meetings too, and it particularly struck me because I’m currently working for a government entity and the sheer volume and frequency of reminders about privacy and security was in such juxtaposition from seeing this bot in the meeting. At first I assumed the company must have got permission from our department to use the bot in meetings, but after the meeting I went to the website and checked the privacy policy, and I’m absolutely confident that it would never have been given approval, because the privacy policy makes absolutely no statements to disarm the assumption that they’re recording everything and will sell their own grandma to advertisers. A particularly negative reading of their privacy policy even suggests they’re not even compliant with privacy laws in Australia?
Another thing I've noticed - only a couple times, thankfully - are messages with that ChatGPT flair that include proprietary details, codenames, status, etc. What was the prompt for that?
Please write a message explaining that <proprietary feature> is behind schedule.
You have to treat it like a data breach. I'm glad my organization has policy and training in place in response, and I haven't seen that in a long time. But I fully believe this problematic person I mentioned would do it without a second thought.
Imagine if you had access to all the messages that people said to the robot. Imagine if you got people to register with online accounts so you could cross reference and figure out who they are and who they work for. Imagine if you had a machine that could read the messages and summarize the status of those organizations.
Sure is a good thing that we have a respectable and trustworthy company at the helm to make sure nothing like that can be abused.
Yeah exactly. I don’t think there’s a problem with AI as a tool per se, but if it’s not an in-house model, it’s absolutely a data breach risk!
Sure, here is a Shakespearean sonnet addressing the matter of not writing one's own email:
In days of yore, when words were borne by quill,
And messages bespoke with care and thought,
A missive’s craft did thus the heart fulfill,
And honor by its sender’s hand was wrought.
Yet now, in modern times, we see the fall,
Of standards once held high and deeply dear.
An automated script or thoughtless thrall,
Doth send a note with none the wiser near.
To shun the labor, not with ink or pen,
But with a ghostly, lifeless, soulless touch,
Is to offend, degrade the craft, and then
Insult the one who reads it very much.
Henceforth, let all who fail to write their plea,
Know that such missives meet the void’s decree.
(
Despite the fact that CGPT appears to have no concept of what iambic pentameter is(I take the first part of this back, the iambic pentameter is there, I'm just not used to reading it any more, I guess), this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. No award winner, to be sure, but at least better than I'd have managed in jr. high, as low a bar as that is.)I've long had this vision of an AI generated 'person' chatting on facetime, whatsapp or whatever while they're busy doing something else —probably mundane like dishes or even an ablution— to another 'person' whose doing the same thing.
As AI helps us more, becomes more capable and gets to know us more —so it can help us more— this weird thought becomes more possible somehow. And is of course saddening and scary. My own hope is that face to face more social physical interactions rise and we realise the value of them.
I'll add a comment about helping me with my grammar. I've always struggled with sentence structure, but it comes and goes. Usually when I am very drained and I've been communicating a ton over the course of the day, this is when it's hardest for me to get my point across.
Normally when I'm in one of these scenarios I will write my entire email and then pull sections out that I'd like to rewrite, and I'll have AI suggest a new perspective of writing it. I don't always take the suggestions, and I'll also proof read and pull out words I would never use.
So basically I am using it as an editor.
This might as well read "How it feels to get an email (instead of a hand written letter) from a friend". In cases like ESL, the LLM could have been used to translate, making it far easier for their friend to communicate. But let's ignore the message being broadcast in favor of being enraged by the method of broadcast. "LLMs can't be excited" neither can text. It's a tool to communicate. Get off the high horse.
Hey [OP],
I can totally understand your mixed feelings about receiving an AI-generated email from a friend. It's a situation that can bring up a lot of different emotions, and it's a new territory for many of us. Here are a few thoughts and perspectives that might resonate:
Surprise and Curiosity: Initially, there's often a sense of surprise. Realizing that an email, which you might have assumed was written personally, was crafted by an AI can be quite a shock. It’s natural to be curious about how the AI works and why your friend chose to use it.
Personal Connection: One of the main aspects of email communication is the personal touch. Knowing that an email was generated by an AI might feel like it lacks the personal connection we usually expect from our friends. It might even feel a bit impersonal or distant.
Efficiency and Convenience: On the flip side, AI can help people manage their time better. Your friend might have used AI to ensure they could reach out despite a busy schedule, which can be seen as a positive thing. It means they still value keeping in touch, even if they needed a little help from technology.
Intent Matters: The context and intention behind using AI are important. If your friend used AI to help draft a complex message or to ensure they communicated clearly and effectively, it might not feel as impersonal. But if it feels like they’re relying on AI too much, it could lead to questions about the authenticity of your interactions.
The Future of Communication: This scenario is becoming more common as AI technology advances. It's part of a broader change in how we communicate. Embracing this technology can open up new possibilities, but it also requires us to think about how we maintain genuine connections.
Expressing Your Feelings: It might be worth discussing this with your friend. Sharing how the AI-generated email made you feel can lead to a better understanding on both sides. They might not realize the impact it had, and your feedback could help them decide how to use AI in the future.
In the end, the feeling of receiving an AI-written email from a friend can be a mix of intrigue, discomfort, and adaptation. It’s a reminder of how rapidly our communication landscape is changing and how we can navigate these changes together.
Curious to hear how others feel about this!
Best,
[Your Username]
Haha, couldn't help myself. :)
More seriously though, I do sometimes ask an AI to write something and then use it for inspiration for my own writing -- sometimes it does come up with some phrases or points that I find valuable to incorporate, but I never accep it wholesale, or even as the majority of the content.